Eventually, Doyle writes about her brave decision to leave her husband and pursue a relationship with Abby.
She records both her own attempts to become the perfect wife, mother, and Christian, and also the sacrifices of her female friends on their respective, similar pursuits. From bulimia and addiction to a relentless need for control, Doyle’s attempts at coping with her depression and anxiety create obstacles on her journey to self-acceptance.
Part 3, or “Free,” commences with a reflection on Doyle’s experiences with depression and anxiety from childhood into adulthood.
Doyle’s journey takes her from her early days of sobriety while newly pregnant to her struggles to find peace and reconciliation in the aftermath of her husband’s infidelity and finally to her release of a lifetime’s share of conditioning in surrender to her ever-changing evolution as a human. Doyle chronicles her own progress through the steps as she learns to feel the full range of feelings, to be still and trust her instincts, to imagine the life she always wanted, and to let go of her conditioning completely in pursuit of trusting herself. Titled “Keys,” Part 2 centers around Doyle’s four steps to break away from the cages of social conditioning. Part 1 concludes with Doyle’s pivotal first meeting with her future wife, soccer player Abby Wambach. She documents the Christian warnings against the desires of Eve, her therapist’s recommendation to improve her sex life by providing her husband more oral sex, the biased gendering of male and female bath products and its greater influence on young adults, and the common experience of women complying to impossible standards. She imagines Tabitha reflecting on her lost sense of wildness and affirms that, despite Tabitha’s current captive state, she is still wild.ĭoyle further explores her own captivity as a woman in Part 1, which she titles “Caged.” Through a series of vignettes, Doyle describes the various ways she has felt caged throughout her life and the social conditioning she has personally experienced.
The cheetah’s captivity resonates with Doyle, who reflects on her own captivity as a woman restricted by society’s conditioning. The family encounters a cheetah named Tabitha whose handlers showcase her tamed wild instincts by having her chase a stuffed bunny tied to the back of a truck. In her Prologue, Doyle begins with a retelling of a visit to a zoo with her wife and two young daughters.
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